T MEPDE 




THE 


4bt 'PEARING AND KINGDOM 


16 

opy 1 


OF OUR 


LORD JESUS CHRIST: 


IN FOUR LETTERS 




BOSTON. 

PUBLISHED BY JOSHUA Y. HIMES, 
14 Devonshire Street. 

1842 . 
































N 






























PREFACE. 



The Great Doctrine of t r 



subject of the following letters) 


the writer for about nine years. His attention was called up 
to consider this very interesting question through the means of 
sermons received lroin the Old World, particularly some able 
discourses from the pen and pulpit of English preachers, 
clergymen of the Church of England. McNeile, Bickersteth, 
Melvill, and some others, have written and preached with great 
force on this subject, while the Dissenters generally have been 
opposed to the doctrine, and have looked at it only, or chiefly, 
with a view to resist it, and put it down. At the time of the 
writer’s embracing these views, he was not aware that any in 
this New World had paid the least attention to the subject. 
And what is most astounding, the Christian public have dis¬ 
covered very little interest in the Doctrine, however distinctly 
proclaimed, while the proclaimers have said little or nothing 
about The Time. Really, the professors of Christ’s holy 
religion seemed to be proof against all impression arising from 
the mere assertion of the truth itself; but as soon as his 
coming speedily—his being at the very door, was declared, 
men began to be uneasy; and when 1843 was announced, the 
whole matter of the Advent began to be clearly apprehended. 
Then “ there were great searchings of heart;” then men began 
to be in trouble. O the depravity and deceitfulness of the 
human heart! While the Judgment of the Great Dav is yet 
considered in the obscurity of distance, “ for many days to 
come—for times that are afar off,” men can bear the prophecy. 
“A little more sleep, a little more slumber.” But no sooner is 
the cry, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet 
him,” than the world is up in arms—the church too ! Alas, 
the blood-bought sons of Zion will not endure the tidings:—- 
the church will do anything rather than prepare for the im¬ 
mediate coming of her Lord: she will bestir herself anew, 
and set about the conversion of the world afresh, rather than 
admit the possibility of her Lord’s coming without delay. 
Though I may not be satisfied with the announced date of 
1843 as the year of the Lord, yet if our learned chronologists 
can make it appear that our Time Table is 157 years behind 
H eaven’s Dial, then I shall be persuaded to believe that 
A. D. 1843 will close the sixth millenary; and then, upon this 
system, the following year, A. D. 1844, the seventh millenary 
will commence, and so the coming of the Lord may be ex¬ 
pected, early in the first Sabbatic year; on what day or at 
what hour who shall presume to say ! 


POSTSCRIPT. 


“While the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and 
slept.” Such is the state of the whole ehurch, as a body, at 
this present time; both the wise and the unwise: and if such 
be the condition with the professed followers of Christ, how 
much more may it be expected that the world,—“ the world 
which lieth in wickedness,” should be totally indifferent to 
this all-important subject. Some few, however, of various 
names, are awake, and some few others are beginning to bestir 
themselves and look around them. Admitting this to be the 
real state of spiritual affairs, can anything be said in prejudice 
of the extraordinary exertion on the part of those few who 
seem to be fully awake to this Great Question ! It maybe 
asked whether the ministers of Christ, who fulfil the ordinary 
and positive duties of their calling, can be justified in stepping 
over the line of their appointed path in order to increase the 
influence of their labors and render such labors more salutary 
and successful: I say this may admit of a question. But here 
is a case which no ordinary duties of a pastor and teacher, 
however well and faithfully those duties may be performed, 
can reach. The unfolding of the Prophetic Roll, and the 
“ signs of the times,” have imposed upon the servants of God 
new and extraordinary duties. With all those who consider 
the time as short, not knowing xchat a day may bring forth — 
with all such, thus impressed and thus enlightened, no labors 
undertaken, no influence exerted, no zeal such knowledge 
dictates can be out of season or irregular. The way of such a 
minister’s duty is plainly before him ; in every pulpit, ac¬ 
cessible to his message, may he not sound the alarm? Or if 
the regular means of ministration be denied him, may he 
not be excused, if not justified, in going into more general 
measures? As a true “knight of the Holy Cross,” may he 
not join the “encampment,” and take the “ tented field?” or 
may he not hold conference in public assembly with brethren 
of the same hope ? Or may he not go out single-handed, with¬ 
out purse or scrip, and “ proclaim the kingdom of heaven at 
hand ?”—Indeed, no means that are lawful, but he may adopt 
so as to get sinners to hear. Th*e church, the accredited house¬ 
hold of faith, will not hear! Those who have been formally 
invited will not hear! They go one to his farm, another to his 
merchandise. He may go, therefore, out into the highway, 
into the streets and lanes of the city, and as many as he finds 
bid to the wedding! And as to those who refuse or neglect 
the offer, it is at their own risk ; he may shake his raiment and 
say, “ Your blood be upon your own heads—I am clean.” 


THE 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 

OF OUR LORD. 


LETTER I. 

THE MILLENNIUM. 

The subject stated—Subject little understood—Generally 
resisted — Subterfuges—The subject demands decision 
and seriousness — Dr. South, Bishop Hall , and John 
Calvin eulogized by unbelievers. 

The Millennium, as a doctrine of Holy 
Scripture, is perhaps as feebly apprehended 
and as little understood, as is any one gospel 
doctrine beside, asserted and held out in the 
same sacred volume. It is a subject upon 
which very few Christians of these days 
have ever exercised their thoughts, and upon 
which they can have come to no decision. 
The Millennium—“the thousand years” spo¬ 
ken of in the apocalypse— the latter day— 
the kingdom of Christ in the latter day, are 
terms which convey no distinct ideas to the 
rAinds of many serious and devout readers 
of the Scriptures. There are other expres- 
l* 



6 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


sions too, on the same subject, in the writings 
of prophets and apostles, which are to many 
a dead letter, even things without life giving 
sound ! A few passages shall be cited, first 
from the Old Testament. Isaiah: “And it 
shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our 
God; we have waited for him, and he will 
save us: this is the Lord, we have waited 
for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his sal¬ 
vation.” “Behold, your God will come with 
vengeance, even God with a recompense; he 
will comp and save you.” “ How beautiful 
upon the mountains are the feet of him that 
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, 
that bringeth good tidings of good, that 
publisheth salvation; that saitli unto Zion, 
Thy God reigneth ! ” “Arise, shine; for thy 
light is come,” &c., to the'end of the chapter. 
David, in the Psalms, abounds in like glori¬ 
ous foresight; and the minor prophets, too, 
exceed in glorious description : “ In his days 
shall the righteous flourish ; and abundance 
of peace so long as the moon endureth.” “He 
shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and 
from the river unto the ends of the earth.” 
“The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; 
he will not turn from it; of the fruit of thy 
body will I set upon thy throne. There will 
I make the horn of David to bud, I have 
ordained a lamp for mine anointed: his 
enemies will I clothe with shame, but upon 
himself shall his crown flourish.” Daniel.: 
“And in the days of these kings shall the 


OF OUR LORD. 


7 


God of heaven set up a kingdom, which 
shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom 
shall not be left to other people, but it shall 
break in pieces and consume all these king¬ 
doms, and it shall stand forever.” Zechariah: 
“Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, 
lo, I come, and will dwell in the midst of 
thee, saith the Lord: and many nations shall 
be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall 
be my people: and I will dwell in the midst 
of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord 
of Hosts hath sent me unto thee.” Now turn 
we to New Testament language, the saying 
and sentiments of Jesus and his apostles. 
“The coming of the Son of man.” “The 
coming of the Lord.” “The days of the 
Son of man, and the day of the Lord.” 
“The glorious appearing of the Great God 
and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” “And unto 
them that look for him shall he appear the 
second time without sin unto salvation.” 
“ The kingdom of God’s dear Son.” “ The 
kingdom of God and of Christ.” “The gospel 
of the kingdom.” v “The day of the Lord 
cometh—the day of the Lord cometh as a 
thief.” “ Behold, I come quickly—even so, 
come Lord Jesus ! ” etc. etc. 

You ask Christians, generally, including 
ministers, what they understand by these 
texts, and they will be at a loss to give any dis¬ 
tinct idea upon the subject declared by them. 
It was just so with the writer some fifteen 
years ago: a circumstance then occurring, 


8 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


will go to set this general ignorance on the 
subject of the Second Advent, in a position 
disgraceful to the Christian profession. A 
volume of sermons on the Second Coming 
was received from England, by a bookseller 
of this country. He thought the work 
would be acceptable to American readers, 
and therefore proposed to reprint it. The 
volume was handed to me, with a request 
that, if I approved of the work, I should 
write an advertisement to the proposed edi¬ 
tion, recommending it to the notice of the 
Christian public. I read the work, of course, 
but saw nothing in it extraordinary or 
peculiar. What the author intended by the 
Second Coming of Christ I did not fully com¬ 
prehend, but supposed he meant the general 
and final judgment. Well, I found that the 
work was what we call orthodox in its 
general principles; and so I sat down and 
wrote a page or two, recommending it upon 
the ground of its evangelism, and for its 
faithful development of the great truths of 
our common salvation. The recommenda¬ 
tion thus written, notwithstanding the veil 
was before my eyes, and upon the heart too, 
was accepted as in point; but the work was 
never reprinted, for I believe the bookseller 
who employed me, and his friends to whom 
he showed my lame performance, were, 
equally with myself, all in the dark as it 
respected this doctrine of the Second Advent 
of Christ. Another instance. A few years 


OF OUR LORD. 


9 


since, I preached, at the request of a congre¬ 
gational brother, an occasional sermon, in his 
meeting-house, on a week day, being upon a 
visit for a few days in the town. My sub¬ 
ject was the scoff of the unbeliever, “ Where 
is the promise of his coming?’ 5 I was very 
particular and distinct on the point of dis¬ 
pute. After sermon, I asked him what were 
his views on the subject. Prom his answer, 
it appeared that he had been struck with 
nothing in the discourse out of the common 
way; his replies were so general that I con¬ 
cluded he had never been led to form any 
idea upon the question of the Advent. One 
circumstance more. While I was in London, 
in the month of May, 1839, I heard a very 
powerful and eloquent sermon from a Baptist 
minister, on a public occasion. The subject 
was the reign of the Messiah. A friend of mine 
who was very indifferent, or rather opposed, 
to the new doctrine , heard the same sermon. 
Upon seeing my friend shortly after, I found 
him lavish in praise of the able discourse. 
I informed him that I heard the same sermon 
and admired it too, especially as it was a 
most happy illustration of Christ’s personal 
reign during the millennium. He was taken 
by surprise, and somewhat confounded, as 
well he might. And so it is with nine tenths 
of the religious community; they condemn 
what they know not, and admire the same 
thing which they, through ignorance, have 
reprobated and condemned. 


10 APPEARING AND KINGDOM 

The coming of Christ the second time, is 
a fact of revelation, which involves results 
and consequences of which accountable men 
wish to remain ignorant; yea Christian men, 
the professed followers of our Lord Jesus, 
boast themselves in their ignorance of this 
whole matter. That infidels and scoffers 
should be obstinate, and willingly, aye wil¬ 
fully ignorant, is no matter of marvel; it is 
just what we might expect; we look for 
nothing less; their seared consciences and 
case-hardened spirits must do as much. 
But that believers should join issue with 
unbelievers, and he that believeth have part 
with an infidel, presents a case the most 
fearful and distressing. Nor are these good 
people content with rejecting the subject for 
themselves, but they calumniate their breth¬ 
ren, whose minds have been differently 
directed, and speak evil even unto reproach 
and contumely of all those who are inclined to 
this way. While it is not for me to decide up¬ 
on the characters of men, nor upon the scru¬ 
tiny Christ shall institute when he comes to 
judgment, it is highly becoming in me, and 
it is a privilege I claim, to judge for myself. 
If my convictions lead me to expect the per¬ 
sonal appearance of Christ, and that shortly; 
and if these convictions lead me to believe 
that my acceptance as a Christian depends 
upon my obedience to Christ’s commands 
and injunctions, can I do anything else than 
be at my post, watching and waiting as he 


OF OUR LORD, 


11 


has appointed me. “ Watch ye, therefore, 
for ye know neither the day nor the hour 
when the Son of man cometh.” This I am 
well assured is my rule, and such I am 
equally assured ought to be my duty. Have 
I not a strong case in the symbol of the ten 
virgins? Were not the whole ten under 
one profession, and under one obligation? 
Did they not, all of them, profess to believe 
in the coming of the Bridegroom, and under 
that profession were they not bound to watch 
and wait, everything being ready, lamps and 
oil; and themselves upon the alert? And 
how was it that five of these ten failed? 
Was it not because they acted not up to their 
convictions? And so the case lies between 
those who believe in the speedy coming of 
Christ, and those who do not believe in this 
doctrine. Here are some few who do not 
profess to know the day nor hour when their 
Lord shall come, and therefore they are 
watching; and these you reproach as foolish 
and fanatic ! You also profess not to know 
the time, and yet you do not watch, and you 
go so far as to scandalize those who do— 
going in the very face of our Lord’s charge. 
Now, I ask with all seriousness, on which 
side do the presumption and the folly lie ? 

There is another subterfuge by which pro¬ 
fessing Christians avoid the obligation they 
are under to wait and hope for the speedy 
coming of their Lord. They say that the whole 
Christian ivorld is very much divided on this 


12 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


subject:—that even those who profess to believe 
in the doctrine itself are nevertheless of dif¬ 
ferent opinions on many important circum¬ 
stances involved in the great question . True, 
there is much diversity of sentiment among 
Christians generally; and also among mil- 
lenarians themselves in particular. And to 
what subject shall we turn our attention on 
which there are no opposing opinions? I 
know not of any. To speak to such an 
objection as this would be almost a waste of 
time and argument, as every one must see in 
a moment, if he only look seriously right 
down on the case. “ Well , drive me as hard 
as you may , and press me up into a corner as 
close as you can ; this subject is but of second¬ 
ary importance after all—amere non-essential v 
make as much of it as you may” 11 And 
farther , the gospel church has progressed , 
and wrought gloriously for ages past, without 
the admission of this theory into its scheme of 
general action!” As to the non -essentiality 
of the point of doctrine now before us, some¬ 
thing need be said by way of argument, so as 
to make it appear that this promise of Christ’s 
coming is not of that trifling import that 
you, and many besides, would represent it to 
be. And, indeed, there is an excess of this 
kind of charity , a willingness on the part of 
many Christians to give up to the prejudices 
or antipathies of many of their fellows, upon 
the ground that those points upon which they 
differ, are not essential Now, I am averse 


OF OUR LORD. 


13 


to this kind of charity by which some stub¬ 
born truths of revelation are resolved into 
non-essentials, but to which, however, these 
truths refuse to submit. There is the doc¬ 
trine of our Lord’s divinity, considered by 
all who do not hold to it, as not essential to 
the Christian faith: but the whole tenor of 
sacred Scripture places it upon the high¬ 
est ground, and 1 am rather persuaded that 
the fact of our Lord’s divinity is very closely 
connected with the fact of his coming again 
in glory and majesty. But, be it so or not, 
his Second Coming, or coming again, is not 
an article in the faith of Christ so, convenient 
and accommodating as to be presented to us 
for our reception or refusal, as may best suit 
our fancy. No, nor can I be brought to 
believe that the form and time of his coming 
are matters of such indifference as to come 
before us without the mark and seal of 
Divine authority. To talk, and write, and 
preach about the reign and kingdom of 
Christ, without deciding upon the fact of his 
coming, whether it be in person or by proxy, 
really or spiritually, is to strip the subject of 
its glory, and to reduce the most magnificent 
fact declared in Scripture, to a tame and cold, 
and even undetermined item in the record of 
“the day of small things.” “The Son of 
man shall come in glory—in his own glory— 
in the glory of his Father, with all the holy 
angels—the Son of man shall come in the 
clouds of heaven, and every eye shall see 
2 


14 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


him! ” But, say you, we believe that Christ 
will come in person as the Scripture describes; 
but this personal coming is to be at the end 
of all terrestrial things, when the final judg¬ 
ment shall sit, and when all the wicked shall 
be consigned to hell, and the righteous taken 
up into heaven. Without controverting even 
this absurd view of the subject, I would just 
say that it seems to me to be essential to a 
good gospel state and condition, that the 
followers of Jesus should be well acquainted 
with all the great movements and measures 
of the Christian dispensation; i. e. whether 
Christ is to have any kingdom on this earth ; 
what are the leading character and princi¬ 
ples of this kingdom; what its extent; 
whether the king himself is to reign in person 
or by proxy; when (not the day or the 
hour, but the era wheii) this kingdom is to be 
set up* and its peculiar institutions establish¬ 
ed; and something too, distinct and rational, 
on the destiny of this earth, so far as this 
may be gathered from the word of God as 
made known to man in the Bible. Now I 
am prepared to say to you, my unbelieving 
friend, that it is very essential to the Christian 
character, especially to him who is a teacher 
of God’s word, that we come to some distinct 
conclusions on the great attributes of our 
Master’s kingdom and majesty, and not to 
go on, as we have been going on for years 
past, witli the insipid sing-so?ig of, this thing 
is not essential , and that thing is not essential. 


OF OUR LORD. 


15 


No, for the time is past, or very fast passing 
off, for this miserable indecision, this dull and 
sleepy apathy, this false charity. “Behold, 
the Judge standeth before the door !” “Be¬ 
hold, I stand at the door and knock.” It was 
just so with those five silly damsels, who had 
taken a fancy to join the procession formed 
for a marriage festival. I dare say that they 
were, or that they thought they were,-good 
and well-favored in their persons; and they 
had lamps, perhaps very elegant ones; and 
so they set out thus equipped, and with this 
affection warm upon their minds,they en¬ 
rolled themselves on the list of guests. 
“Well, but,” said a by-stander, “ look, you 
have no oil in your vessels, aud your lamps are 
already nearly out.” “O,” said they, “that is 
not essential; there are others here who have 
plenty, and perhaps what we have may be 
enough for the ceremony! ” You know how 
that ended; and it would not be amiss if you 
were to treat the matter of our Lord’s coming 
with more seriousness, and be 'prepared to 
meet him, lest you fail through your indiffer¬ 
ence to a subject that demands solemn atten¬ 
tion. 

And here, again, we are told that the gospel 
has progressed and succeeded gloriously for 
ages past, without the system of the Advent 
being wrought into its report. And so the 
inference drawn is that this theological 
theory is not essential to a good and efficient 
gospel ministry. I am by no means willing 


16 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


to undervalue the power that has been exer¬ 
cised of late years in the ministry of the 
word, both at home and abroad; but then, 
this declaration is not strictly true, for, upon 
an examination into the case, it is found that 
some of the most zealous advocates of mis¬ 
sionary labors are firm believers in the 
speedy coming of our Lord. In this Western 
region of the Christian world the doctrine of 
the Advent is but little understood, yet on 
thh other side of the great waters a very con¬ 
siderable department of missionary ground is 
occupied by very zealous men of this faith. 
And there is another consideration. Preach¬ 
ing Christ crucified is the first great principle 
of gospel preaching. This has been done 
very faithfully, and God the Holy Spirit has 
borne testimony to this course of means, and 
so sinners have been converted : but it does 
not follow that what God has revealed of his 
Son’s glory and kingdom, may be withheld 
as unnecessary in making known all the 
counsel of God. And there is one considera¬ 
tion more, that though the gospel has been 
preached without making known the nature 
of Christ’s kingdom as we hold it, yet so 
much of the truth in regard to Christ’s king¬ 
dom has been proclaimed, as to give converts 
some essential ideas on the subject. As first, 
a kingdom—a kingdom upon earth—the 
kingdom of heaven upon the earth, and 
Jesus, the Son of David, the Great King. 
Now then, whether these things have been 


OF OUR LORD. 


17 


declared with a spiritual fulfilment in view, 
or otherwise, still they have been literally 
declared, and, therefore, so much of the 
doctrine has been apprehended as to give an 
evangelical cast to a kingdom on the earth; 
and that is all which is absolutely Necessary 
in preaching the “ kingdom of God.” 

But after all that maybe said in allowance 
of this— boast , shall I cg,ll it?—for it savors 
of this unhumble spirit—nothing has been 
done, comparatively, in spreading the gospel, 
as might have been done, considering the 
means which have been possessed by the 
churches since the era of the Reformation. 
The spirit of missions had slept for ages 
when the usurpations of Rome were resisted : 
and not till about the middle of the 18th 
century had the Christian Church been 
aroused to her duty in this department of 
gospel administration. And even since, 
down to the present day, little has been ac¬ 
complished among the heathen, except the 
conversion of a few scattered tribes in the 
Pacific* Ocean, and some individuals within 
the vast nations of Asia; but as to the cap¬ 
ture of any nation in the East, nothing of 
such importance has been brought to pass 
by the “missionary enterprise” of these 
days. 

A few lines must be devoted to a fruitful 
source of scandal, by which the doctrine of 
the Second Advent has been prejudiced in the 
eyes of many a serious and devout Christian. 

2* 


18 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


By these means the prophetic, and even 
apostolic writings have been contemned, and 
their authority set aside. Dr. South, (not a 
very fair specimen of good character, I will 
admit,) in the plenitude of his impertinent 
wit, has said that “ the study of the apoca¬ 
lypse either finds a man mad, or leaves him 
so.” A much better man, Bishop Hall, con¬ 
demns the study of the prophets, with the 
subject of the millennium in view, in “too 
sweeping a way;” and compliments himself 
for having more wisdom, and more real 
spirituality than to suffer himself to be carried 
away with the carnal notions of millenari- 
ans. Calvin (a name that combines every¬ 
thing excellent in the estimation of some, 
but everything execrable in that of others) 
is commended “for not having attempted the 
explanation of the book of Revelation.” 
Many more instances might be cited, in 
which scandal is cast upon the study of the 
prophecies; and there is no doubt but there 
have been many profane speculations on 
these sacred writings. But, what of that? 
Has not divine revelation as a whole, and 
every doctrine of it in particular, been subject 
to profane and unworthy treatment? and 
nothing less can be expected in regard to the 
question before us. Millenarian has been 
in former times a designation for a fanatic , 
and that because to the scriptural doctrine 
of the one thousand years, have been con¬ 
joined a thousand absurdities, by which 


OF OUR LORD. 


19 


soberminded Christians have been disgusted. 
And so, whenever in after-times the doctrine 
has been asserted, it has been taken for 
granted that these, or other absurdities more 
absurd, must be an essential part of the sys¬ 
tem. The fifth monarchy men , who rose 
during the interregnum in England, were 
millenarians. The anabaptists in Germany, 
in Luther’s time, were a kind of millenari¬ 
ans ; and so are the Shakers, or followers of 
Ann Lee. But the errors and superstitions 
of these fanatics, are not to be ascribed to 
the system of the millennium, any more than 
are the errors and superstitions of some of 
the early Christians to be ascribed to Chris¬ 
tianity. “All Scripture is given by inspira¬ 
tion of God, and is profitable for doctrine, 
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
righteousness; that the man of God may be 
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works.” With this passage of Holy Writ in 
view, how any believers in God’s word can 
venture to pronounce the study of any part 
of the sacred volume unprofitable , and even 
injurious, is not for me to say; that will be 
determined another day; and more especially 
still, to decry the study of the unfulfilled 
prophecies, particularly the apocalypse, while 
this passage is before them: “Blessed is he 
that readeth, and they that hear the words of 
this prophecy, and keep those things which 
are written therein ; for the time is at hand.” 


LETTER II. 


ASPECTS OF THE MILLENNIUM. 

Development of the writer's method—Proofs and illustra¬ 
tions from plain passages—The day of the Lord—The 
coming of the Lord—The appearing of the Lord . 

It is not my intention to perplex my dear 
reader with proofs and illustrations, whereby 
to enforce my subject, drawn from the bold 
and vivid scenes so fully displayed in the 
writings of Daniel the prophet and John the 
divine. Neither shall I be so free and con¬ 
fident with my algebra , as to bring out my 
results to a day or a year. I shall decline 
the discussion of these very sublime, and in 
some instances hard-to-be-understood ora¬ 
cles ; not because they are too mysterious 
and occult for general comprehension, but 
rather because these writings have been 
opened by others better capable of such re¬ 
searches than I am myself; and also, it is 
my conviction that the glorious Advent of 
Jesus is to be illustrated, as well as proved, 
by the more plain and didactic scriptures. 
I am free to declare it as my persuasion, that 
if there had been no visions of either Daniel 
or St. John, there had enough on this subject 


APPEARING OF OUR LORD. 


21 


been said by the Saviour himself, as recorded 
by his disciples and written by the apostles, 
to declare and develop this great mystery—• 
the mystery of God manifest in the flesh— 
manifest the second time in glory and majesty 
to judge the world, both quick and dead ; 
and to setup his throne in Zion; to put 
down all opposing authorities, and to reign 
king over all the earth. Now, the reader is 
not to understand me, from what I have just 
now written, as having a mean opinion of 
those Holy Writings to which I have refer¬ 
red, nor of the talents and attempts of those 
who have undertaken to interpret and apply 
them; far from it; the holy books themselves, 
when I only look upon them, inspire me 
with the most profound reverence and solemn 
awe; and as to those holy men, whether 
more or less learned, who have taken great 
and devout pains to explain and illustrate 
them, I do revere and respect them, and es¬ 
teem them very highly for their works’ sake. 
But my mind has not been directed so much 
into that course of study, and even if I had 
capacity for such a course. I should, for my¬ 
self, prefer that which I have adopted, and 
for this plain reason, among others, namely; 
that the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, with 
some other prophets, are more literal and 
easy of comprehension than those of Daniel: 
and so with what the evangelists have re¬ 
corded of matters immediately relating to the 
Messiah, as well as the epistles of Peter and 


22 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


p au l—men who have expressed themselves 
so clearly on the subject of the Second 
Coming, so clearly and palpably, that the 
conclusions to which I have come, have been 
inevitable. My judgment then has- dictated 
this same course in my usual discourses 
delivered on this mighty question; and 
though this method of treating the subject, 
may, in the opinion of some, be rather tame 
and dull, yet, for me, perhaps, it will be more 
safe, and I do humbly think more profitable 
to my reader. 

With this explanation and development 
of my plan, I shall now proceed to some 
proofs and illustrations of so important a 
subject. The coming of a Divine Person, 
the Son of God in the flesh, has been the 
subject of prophecy from the beginning of 
creation, down to the close of the Old-Testa¬ 
ment canon; and then, to the close of the 
New Testament, his coming in his glory and 
majesty is the great object of Christian ex¬ 
pectation. The coming of the Lord appears 
under somewhat different aspects, as it is 
represented and foretold severally by writers 
of the Old , and of the New Testament. By 
the former of these, the coming of the Lord 
is not always foretold in terms so explicit 
as to show the first coming as an event 
distinct from the Second Coming: indeed, 
it is hardly to be supposed that the prophets 
themselves, though inspired to foreshow the 
truth, comprehended distinctly those truths 


OF OUR LORD. 


23 


predicted in their inspired writings. This 
conclusion may be gathered from the senti¬ 
ments expressed by the disciples on the 
character of the Messiah: they had no idea 
of a first and second coming; they supposed 
all the ends of his incarnation would be 
answered at that time. If I were to venture 
upon a conjecture, I should admit the 
persuasion that the disciples, upon the resur¬ 
rection of their Master, were delivered from 
the desperate condition into which his death 
had thrown them, and that they were fully 
justified in expecting the speedy establish¬ 
ment of his kingdom. This I think may be 
safely gathered from the hopes they expressed 
to him when they were brought together 
after the rising from the dead: “When they, 
therefore, were come together, they asked of 
him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time re¬ 
store again the kingdom unto Israel ?” And 
so with the Jewish nation, generally: they 
expected, when the Christ should come, that 
his coming would accomplish all the glowing 
predictions of the prophets in regard to the 
kingdom. It is to the gospel dispensation 
we are indebted for power whereby to dis¬ 
cern between the separate designs of the first 
and second coming. By this view of the 
question we are confirmed in the doctrine of 
our Lord’s appearing personally in glory and 
majesty. 

I must now point you to two passages of 
Scripture, in which the first and second com- 


24 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


ingof the Lord are both distinctly and several¬ 
ly marked, each in its place and order. Luke 
i. 68, 69, 70. “ Blessed be the Lord God of 

Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his 
people, and hath raised up a horn of salva¬ 
tion for us in the house of his servant David; 
as he spake by the mouth of his holy pro¬ 
phets, which have been since the world 
began.” These are the words of Zacharias, 
who, being “filled with the Holy Ghost,” 
prophesied of the glory and majesty of Jesus, 
whose majesty Zacharias anticipated upon 
the birth of this holy child. The inspiration 
that was upon his mind did not lead him 
into any consideration farther than that 
glory and power to which this mysterious 
child was destined as the Son of David; 
not seeing into that humility and those 
sufferings which were to precede the event 
of the kingdom : and this is all that is neces¬ 
sary to our purpose at this time. Zacharias, 
by the Holy Ghost, foresaw the glory and 
majesty of the Lord, as he declares to be 
predicted by all the holy prophets, from the 
beginning of the world. Now, to the second 
passage, Acts iii. 19, 21. “Repent ye, there¬ 
fore, and be converted, that your sins may 
be blotted out when the times of refreshing 
shall come from the presence of the Lord; 
and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before 
was preached unto you : whom the heavens 
must receive until the times of restitution of 
all things, which God hath spoken by the 


OF OUR LORD. 


25 


mouth of all his holy prophets since the 
world began.” These are the words of the 
apostle Peter, spoken after the death of Jesus, 
in view of his Second Coming; but in both 
cases the glory, and personal majesty of Jesus 
are declared to be the subject of prophecy 
from the beginning of the world. Now, this 
is the subject, my dear reader, I have to im¬ 
press upon your mind, namely, that the 
coming and kingdom of the Son of God is 
the great subject of “holy” prophecy, from 
the foundation of the world. Indeed, this 
has been the burden of the word of the Lord 
in every age. “To Him give all the prophets 
witness.” I need not at this time cite passages 
from the prophets, in vieiv of his first coming, 
only to say that Isaiah foretells his humilia¬ 
tion, as the “man of sorrows,” and the ac¬ 
quaintance of grief: and Daniel declares his 
death; “after threescore and two weeks 
shall Messiah be cut off, but not ’ for him¬ 
self.” The coming of Christ in glory is our 
particular object, and his coming personally, 
too, not in opposition , but in contradistinction 
to his spiritual coming, for which some so 
zealously contend. The whole of the Ixxii. 
Psalm may be regarded as the most pointed 
testimony; a verse or two will be sufficient. 
“Give the king thy judgments, O God, and 
thy righteousness unto the king’s son :—He 
shall have dominion from sea to sea, and 
from the river to the ends of the earth—yea, 
all kings shall-fall down before him; all 
3 


26 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


nations shall serve him.” The type here is 
Solomon, David’s son; a very natural symbol, 
because the antitype is David’s Son, and, as 
the Messiah, David’s Lord. No one can 
doubt the personality of the subject of this 
prophecy, nor that it is applicable to Jesus 
Christ; for very little of this magnificent pre¬ 
diction was ever fulfilled in the person and 
reign of Solomon. The xlv. Psalm is equally 
expressive of a personal manifestation. “My 
heart is inditing a good matter; I speak of the 
things which I have made touching the king. 
Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, the 
sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre; thou 
lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness; 
therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee 
with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” 
Isa. xi. “ And there shall come forth a rod 
out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall 
grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the 
Lord shall rest upon him and so on. Here 
too, everything looks like a personal mani¬ 
festation. Again. “And in that day there 
shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for 
an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gen¬ 
tiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious.” 
The language here is highly figurative, but 
the object illustrated is real and personal. 

Daniel shall speak in terms peculiar to his 
own inspiration. Chap. vii. 13. “I saw in 
the night visions, and behold, one like the 
Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, 
and came to the Ancient of days, and they 


OF OUR LORD. 


27 


brought him near before Him; and there was 
given him dominion, and glory, and a king¬ 
dom, that all people, nations, and languages 
should serve Him: His dominion is.an ever¬ 
lasting dominion, which shall not pass away, 
and His kingdom that which shall not be 
destroyed/’ I hardly need repeat what I 
have said before, on the personality of our 
Lord’s manifestation : nor need I add any 
more citations from the Old Testament pro¬ 
phecy, “ words spoken by the holy prophets, 
which have been since the world began.” 

As the Old Testament left this subject, so 
the New took it up. I would not say that 
the humiliation of Jesus is overlooked; by 
no means; but no sooner is Jesus, the Son of 
God, announced, and his birth declared, with 
all the humble circumstances attending his 
appearance in the flesh, but bis dominion 
and majesty, his power and glory, his heir¬ 
ship to the throne of his Father David, and 
the certainty of his rule over all the earth, 
become the theme of prediction, and the sub¬ 
ject of the most enlarged expectation. The 
page of history, as it is opened in the New 
Testament, is, it is true, a detail of the suf¬ 
ferings of our Lord; and, farther, tffe great 
subject of the apostolic ministry is “Jesus 
Christ and him crucified.” It could riot be 
otherwise; the end for which he was born 
could not be accomplished but as “he be¬ 
came obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross.” His kingdom had become alien, 


28 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


and his subjects rebels; all his earthly do¬ 
mains had become apostate; all was under 
the arrest of divine justice. It was necessary, 
therefore, absolutely necessary, that the In¬ 
carnate King should first make atonement 
for the sins of his rebel subjects, and open 
the way of reconciliation. Redemption was 
his first work; and this work being performed 
and rendered complete through his death, the 
apostles went out, commissioned and in¬ 
structed by their Master, and preached Jesus 
who was crucified, that through him men 
might “receive remission of sins,” through 
faith in his death. “And he commanded them 
to preach unto the people, and to testify that 
it is He which was ordained of God to be the 
judge of quick and dead.” The apostles 
having clearly and faithfully set before the 
world the 'priestly office of Christ, they then 
turned the attention of the same people to the 
kingly office of this same Jesus, whom God 
had appointed to the throne of David. 
“ Therefore, let all the house of Israel know 
assuredly, that God hath made that same 
Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord 
and Christ.” 

Jesus, himself, in his discourses, publicly 
before the people, sets forth this subject in 
terms too plain to be controverted. The 
parable of the vineyard and the husbandmen, 
(Matt, xxi.) the parable of the servants, 
(Luke xxiv.) and of the ten virgins, (Matt, 
xxv.) all and each of them develop and fore- 


OF OUR LORD. 


29 


show this great event. Jesus speaks, with¬ 
out parable, of coming in the clouds of 
heaven in glory—in the glory of the Father, 
Avith the holy angels. The Lord Jesus was, 
if I may so speak, anxious that his disciples 
should have the fullest assurance of his glo¬ 
rious return : hence he is ample in the means 
of information on this most interesting sub¬ 
ject; and this important information is com¬ 
mitted to the ministry of angels, to which 
they bear testimony up to the hour of his 
departure, even as he ascended to heaven in 
the presence of his apostles. “ And while 
they looked steadfastly towards heaven as 
he went up, behold two men stood by them 
in white apparel, which also said, “Ye men 
of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into 
heaven ? This same Jesus which is taken 
up from you into heaven, shall so come 
again in like manner as ye have seen him 
go into heaven.’ 7 

The passages I shall call up from the 
apostolic writings may be classed under three 
heads, namely: The day of the Lord—The 

COMING OF THE LORD-The APPEARING OF THE 

Lord. 

The day of the Lord. It would be a kind 
of epoch—a memorable period for a particular 
purpose; and so it will appear in the text 
now to be cited. 1 Cor. i. 8: “ Who shall 
also confirm you unto the end, that ye may 
be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus 
Christ.” Again, 2d Epistle i. 14: “That 


30 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


we (apostles) are your rejoicing, even as ye 
also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.” 
1 Thess. v. 2: “ For yourselves know per¬ 
fectly that the day of the Lord so cometh 
as a thief in the night.” These passages 
(and many more of similar import might be 
quoted) very clearly express' a period in the 
gospel dispensation, upon which the apostles 
laid no small stress— a day when they ex¬ 
pected their Lord to make some certain and 
peculiar manifestation, both of his person 
and of his will. In allusion to this day, the 
apostle Paul, in another place, says, “the 
day shall declare it, because it shall be re¬ 
vealed by fire, and the fire shall try every 
man’s work of what sort it is.” 

The coming of the Lord— the day when 
his expected coming was to be realized. 
1 Cor. i. 7: “ Waiting for the coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thess. ii. 19: “For 
what is our hope, or joy, or crown of re¬ 
joicing? Are not even ye in the presence of 
our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?” Chap, 
iii. 13: “To the end he may establish your 
hearts unblameable in holiness before God, 
even our Father, at the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ with all his saints.” There is 
a very interesting event connected with the 
coming of Jesus in the next passage I shall 
recite from the same epistle, Chap. iv. 15: 
“ For this we say unto you, by the word of 
the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain 
at the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent 


OF OUR LORD. 


31 


(shall not have the advantage of) them which 
are asleep; for the Lord himself shall descend 
from heaven,” &c. The event here revealed 
is the resurrection of the saints at the coming 
of the Lord from heaven. The resurrection of 
the wicked is not spoken of here: in another 
place their resurrection is appointed at a dis¬ 
tant period, not till after the one thousand 
years be fulfilled. The coming of the Lord, 
I infer therefore, is at the commencement of 
the thousand years, not at the conclusion of 
them. Other apostles beside St. Paul, adopt 
the same sentiments. James: “Be patient, 
therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the 
Lord—for the coming of the Lord draweth 
nigh.” Peter: “For we have not followed 
cunningly devised fables, when we made 
known unto you the power and coming of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses 
of his majesty.” “ Looking for, and hasting 
unto the coming of the day of God.” Jude, 
also, in a most expressive quotation from an 
antediluvian prophet, “ Enoch, the seventh 
from Adam, prophesied of these” days, say¬ 
ing, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten 
thousand of his saints.” 

The third form of the Advent is the ap¬ 
pearing of Christ. 1 Tim. vi. 14: “I give 
thee charge (son Timothy) in the sight of 
God—that thou keep this commandment 
without spot, unrebukeable, until the ap¬ 
pearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Tim. 
iv. 1: “1 charge thee^therefore, before God 


32 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge 
the quick and dead at his appearing and his 
kingdom.” 8th verse : “ Henceforth, there is 
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall 
give me at that day; and not to me only, 
but unto all them also that love his appear¬ 
ing.” Peter joins issue with his brother Paul , 
and announces the same gracious reward for 
all who patiently wait for him. 1st Epis. 
v. 4: “ And when the chief shepherd shall 
appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that 
fadeth not away.” 1st John iii. 2 : “ Beloved, 
now are we the sons of God, and it doth not 
yet appear what we shall be: but we know 
that when he shall appear, we shall be like 
him; for we shall see him as he is.” In 
the 28th ver. of the ii. chap., the terms both 
appearing and coining are used as synony¬ 
mous. “And now, little children, abide in 
him; that when he shall appear, we may 
have confidence, and not be ashamed before 
him at his coming !” 

From these three articles, namely, The 
day of Christ—The coming of Christ—and 
the appearing of Christ, we are very plainly 
taught, 

1st. That < the promise and prediction of 
Christ’s return, with the expectation of 
Christ’s followers founded thereon, justifies 
our conclusion in favor of his personal ad¬ 
vent! Indeed, we consider the advent of 
Jesus necessary to millennial glory, and there- 


OF OUR LORD. 


33 


fore, the coming of the Lord must be before 
that period, and not afterwards. We are 
taught again, 2dly. That the prophets fore¬ 
told generally, and the apostles expected 
particularly, the personal presence of the 
Lord Messiah at his coming. If the 
prophets did not foresee and foretell the 
actual and personal presence of the Redeemer 
of Israel when they predicted his glorious 
advent, I must say their ideas on the subject 
were expressed in a language and in words 
calculated to mislead those who received 
their message. But I apprehend that it was 
their intention to convey this very idea to 
those to whom they were sent. Yes, the 
apostles themselves understood them in this 
sense, for they quote these same prophets in 
testimony of this conviction. Acts, chap, 
iii. ver. 21, as above referred to, is in proof 
the most irrefragable ! 3dly. The apostolic 
epistles are evidently written in such a spirit 
and style as to awaken in the readers’ minds, 
a holy longing and fervent expectation in 
regard to the glorious advent of God’s dear 
Son, in the event of which they were to be 
repaid for all their toil, and travail which 
they had endured for the love of so great 
and blessed a Master. St. Paul expected to 
seal the testimony he had borne to the truth 
with his blood; in prospect of which his 
mind becomes the most elevated, and his 
sentiments are expressed in language glow¬ 
ing and grand. “I am now ready to be 


34 APPEARING AND KINGDOM 

offered, and the time of my departure is at 
hand. I have fought a good fight; I have 
finished my course; I have kept the faith : 
henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown 
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righte¬ 
ous judge, shall give me at that day ; and not 
to me only, but unto all them that love his 
appearing ! ” The coming of the Lord is so 
anticipated that it seems to be, in the estima¬ 
tion of the saints, the substance of all their 
hopes, and the fruition of all that might be 
desired ! The disciples of our Lord were all 
taken up with it: nothing could assuage the 
throbbings of their troubled hearts but this 
promise—“ I will come again unto you. Let 
not your heart be troubled, neither let it be 
afraid.” And will any one of the house¬ 
hold of faith tell me that he has no interest 
in this second coming—nothing to expect 
when he shall appear—all they look for is to 
be prepared for death, and then the rest will 
follow? Alas, that there should be such 
apathy on a subject so far exceeding every 
other, named as it may be, whether in 
heaven, or on the earth—a subject which is 
the chief glory of Revelation ! Indeed, the 
subject itself, the glorious advent of our Eman¬ 
uel, is sufficient alone to give the tone of in¬ 
spiration to those writings, which, but for 
this, have been held, by many, in doubtful 
divinity. For myself, I must say, that 
nothing has so cleared up the forbidding 
aspect of Solomon’s canticle, as the applica- 


OF OUR LORD. 


35 


tion of the following beautiful lines to the 
Bridegroom, which cometh out of his cham¬ 
ber, bedecked with jewels, to rejoice over 
his Bride ! 

“ -The voice of my Beloved! 

Behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, 

Skipping upon the hills. 

My Beloved is like a young roe or a hart. 

Behold, he standeth behind our wall, 

He looketh forth at the windows, 

Showing himself through the lattice. 

My Beloved spake, and said unto me, 

Rise up, my Love, my Fair One, and come away; 

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, 

The flowers appear on the earth, 

The time of the singing of birds is come, 

And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. 

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, 

And the vines, with the tender grape give a good smell. 
Arise my Love, my Fair One, and come away. 


Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, 

Turn, my Beloved, and be thou like a roe, 

Or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” 

Cant. ii. S— 13, 17. 

He that testifieth these things saith, 
surely, I come quickly; Amen. Even so, 
come, Lord Jesus. Amen. 








-me 

10 / q 


LETTER III. 

THE SECOND ADVENT THE HOPE OF ISRAEL. 

The subject exciting—The passions must be held in sub¬ 
mission — The promise to Abraham—To Jacob—To 
David—The promise, its letter and spirit—How un¬ 
derstood—The Messiah, Priest and King—These 
offices not properly apprehended and reconciled by early 
converts—The faith of the apostles—Reports exam¬ 
ined—One gospel for Jew and Gentile. 

The seed of Abraham, in the house and 
lineage of Jacob, will be/ound to be a people 
holy unto the Lord, and the lot of the 
Lord’s inheritance even unto the end of the 
world. Their character, history, and expe¬ 
rience seem to be essential to the economy 
of divine grace, as revealed in both testa¬ 
ments, the Old and the New. Indeed, my 
dear reader, I cannot see how the purposes 
of the Holy Covenant can be fulfilled with¬ 
out this peculiar people occupy a most com¬ 
manding station in the grand drama. As it 
is not my prescribed course to controvert and 
litigate, so much as to lay down, the plainly 
revealed truths of our gospel, I shall content 
myself with the mere acknowledgment and 
allowance of what is said and prophetically 


APPEARING OF OUR LORD. 


37 


taught concerning the house of Israel; and 
so much only of this as necessarily connects 
with the glorious coming of our Lord. I am 
well aware of this one thing, namely; that 
a subject, at the head of which stands, in 
glorious array, the appearing and kingdom 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, must, if affection¬ 
ately embraced, produce a strong and deep 
impression upon the mind: indeed, it can 
hardly be otherwise than that the believer 
should be carried away with it. The apostle, 
in a similar case, says, “The love of Christ 
constraineth us,” &c. We are carried away 
by it—we have no power by which to resist — 
we are not our own , we are Christ's , and at 
His will—Christ is cdl and in all. But, my 
brother, the apostle was not left to the 
guidance, or rather to the impetuosity of his 
own passions; he spake and acted as moved 
by the Holy Ghost. Now it is a matter of 
very serious inquiry whether we in our zeal 
for the faith of this mighty fact,— (a fact 
it will be shortly, an object of faith it is as 
yet.)—shall be under so safe and sure a 
guide. We are very liable to be led away 
by human passion, and even, I had almost 
said, infuriated by human prejudice. I am 
the more inclined to some caution and self- 
examination on this point, from what ap¬ 
pears from time to time in our millennial 
journals. The conductors of these call hard 
names, and fasten terms of reproach on 
some who do not see with them, and who 
4 


38 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


do not dare to express themselves so confi¬ 
dently as if they knew themselves to he 
moved by the Holy Ghost, as was most as¬ 
suredly the apostle, and as are, and were not , 
most assuredly, Messrs. Editors and corres¬ 
pondents in these journals. No, my friend 
and brother , all your unbelief notwithstand¬ 
ing, I am not expecting to convert you to 
the faith of Christ, even as I hold that faith, 
by the hold assertion of hypothesis, the tra¬ 
ditions of men—human opinion, and private 
interpretation ; my expectations run in quite 
another channel, the pure stream of God’s 
word, I trust. I hope to be always ashamed 
to put my own comment on the prophets, 
merely to make them to speak for me and 
not for their Lord. (See S. T., No. 9, vol. 
III., Exp. Isa. xi.) That mind is but very 
partially chastened by the Divine Spirit 
which can arrogate an authority by which to 
expound God’s word so as to make its mean¬ 
ing distinctly different from its assertion. 
Let us he careful to watch against such a 
daring and unbelieving temper, while we 
pursue the subject to be considered in this 
letter. 

Let us, my dear reader, have some good 
understanding in the matter now in hand. 
Our subject is The coming of Christ —the 
second coming. Now let us consider what 
is expressed and implied in this coming 
simply. The person of the Mediator Mes¬ 
siah appears first in promise as the seed of the 


OF OUR LORD. 


39 


woman; then as the seed of Abraham :— 
“Now to Abraham and his seed were the 
promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, 
as of many, bnt as of one, and to thy seed, 
which is Christ.” Then, after this, the 
promise is confirmed in the house of Jacob, 
in the tribe of Judah. David and his house 
follows. To David the promise of the Mes¬ 
siah is very special and particular; so dis¬ 
tinct and plain that I need not quote in 
proof: but to this point of promise we come 
for a more full and clear development of the 
personal character of the promised one. To 
David, who is also called a “prophet,” the 
deity of his Son is revealed; “ Thy throne, 
O God, is forever and ever.” And other 
prophets too, are inspired to testify this same 
fact. The same is confirmed by Gabriel, 
the first spirit in waiting in the divine pres¬ 
ence; by him his birth is announced to his 
virgin mother: “He shall, be great, and 
shall be called the Son of the Highest, and 
the Lord God shall give unto him the throne 
of his father David: and he shall reign over 
the house of Jacob forever; and of his king¬ 
dom there shall be no end !” 

The purpose for which the Son of God was 
manifest in the flesh was not wholly accom¬ 
plished during his sojourn upon earth for 
thirty-three years, in humiliation even unto 
death—the death of the cross; being made a 
sacrifice for sin. He is to appear the second 
time, without sin unto salvation. This sec - 


40 APPEARING AND KINGDOM 

ond appearance is the hope of Israel; and 
this is the fact we are to open and confirm 
in this letter. 

The history of the whole house of Israel 
need not be given in detail, only remarking 
as we pass, that the revolt of the ten tribes, 
in the days of Rehoboam, and their contin¬ 
uance in a separate state to this day, must 
give to their several histories a character 
peculiar to each, as their condition may sev¬ 
erally be. I have only to add here, that the 
revolt of the ten tribes, and their oblivion at 
the time of Christ’s first advent, would seem 
to excuse them from all responsibility in the 
matter of Christ’s rejection and crucifixion; 
a matter involving an accountability the 
most severe and awful as it concerned the 
Jews. I am aware that a remnant of every 
tribe, perhaps, “scattered” among their Jew¬ 
ish brethren, might be offered as an objec¬ 
tion to the present argument; but to me it 
appears very plain, that these scattered rem¬ 
nants , however identified, cannot be admit¬ 
ted in opposition to the general question. 

Israel is a generic term, and is often used 
for Jews, children of the house of Judah, as 
well as for those scripturally called Israel, 
children of the ten tribes. They have both 
one common hope in their promised Messiah. 
Let us now examine into the letter of that 
promise upon which the sons of Jacob had 
settled their hope. And then what was that 
very thing they, through all generations, 


OF OUR LORD. 41 

have expected in order to the fulfilment of 
that promise? 

1st. What was the letter, the distinct 
character of that promise upon which the 
faith and hope of Israel rested? The reply- 
must be as the Scripture warrants. The 
promise to Abraham runs thus: “In thee 
shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 
Thy seed shall possess the gate of his ene¬ 
mies : and in thy seed shall the nations of 
the earth be blessed.” The apostle, as we 
have seen before, applies this promise. to 
Christ, as the seed of Abraham. To the 
covenant with Abraham, the sons of Jacob 
have always, and in all ages, both before 
and since their dispersion, referred with 
great pertinacity ; nor can the letter of their 
claim be disputed. The dying Jacob re¬ 
vealed the promise of Shiloh, the sent one : 
“And to him shall the gathering of the peo¬ 
ple be.” To Moses was the promise of a 
prophet like unto himself, sovereign in au¬ 
thority and mighty in dominion. The book 
of Psalms, and the books of the prophets are 
so full, that only a passage or two can be ci¬ 
ted. Ps. lxxxix.3: “I have made a covenant 
with my chosen, I have sworn unto David, 
my servant, thy seed will I establish forever, 
and build up thy throne unto all genera¬ 
tions.” Verse 20 : “I have found David my 
servant; with my holy oil have I anointed 
him.” 25th: “I will set his hand also in 
the sea, and his right hand in the rivers, 
4 * 


42 APPEARING AND KINGDOM 

and I will make him my first-born, higher 
than the kings of the earth.” The prophet 
Isaiah, ix. 6, 7: “ For unto us a child is 
born, unto us a son is given, and the govern¬ 
ment shall be upon his shoulder, and his 
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 
The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, 
The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of 
his government and peace there shall be no 
end; upon the throne of David, and upon 
his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it 
With judgment and with justice from hence¬ 
forth even forever. The zeal of the Lord 
of Hosts will perform this.” These noble 
and sublime prophetic promises are repeated 
almost to the letter, when his immediate 
approach was announced. The angel Ga¬ 
briel, who addressed the virgin mother, uses 
this strong and highly wrought language: 
“ Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bring 
forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. 
He shall be great, and shall be called the 
Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall 
give unto him the throne of his father 
David; and he shall reign over the house 
of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there 
shall be no end!” There can be but one 
idea gathered from these prophecies and 
promises;—in the person of God’s Son a king 
is promised, and his kingdom is to be estab¬ 
lished over the house of Israel, upon the 
throne of David, to which dignity and do¬ 
minion the king is entitled, being of the 
house and lineage of David. 


OF OUR LORD. 


43 


2d. Onr next inquiry is, in what sense 
was this promise understood, and what was 
that very thing which the sons of Israel 
expected, in order to the fulfilment of this 
promise ? 

And here, my dear reader, it will be 
necessary to ask whether the whole charac¬ 
ter and office of the promised Messiah had 
been developed in the promises and predic¬ 
tions above cited? The promises and pre¬ 
dictions, which have been before us, are but 
a brief selection from a very large class—I 
say class of promises, for there are promises 
and predictions of another order, relating to 
another character which the Messiah was 
appointed to sustain. Those already before 
us relate to the kingly office—those now to 
he glanced at will develope the office of the 
priest: and it would seem that this priestly 
office in the promised Saviour, was very 
partially apprehended, and by many over¬ 
looked. The nation of Israel had such an 
exalted opinion of the sacerdotal economy 
appointed for the congregation, that it scarce¬ 
ly entered into their minds that this whole 
office of rites was but the shadow of some 
good, some better thing yet to come. And 
equally absent from their minds was the 
impression that their Messiah should sustain 
the office of a priest, and furnish in his own 
person the victim to be offered and the priest 
to officiate! 

And too, there is another thing: the prom- 


44 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


ise of an anointed king, like unto David, and 
of David’s line, was more fully, and more 
literally made known than was the fore¬ 
showing of the priestly character: and so 
the kingly promise took the precedence of 
the priestly promise; the royal impression 
was first made, and it took such extensive 
hold upon the mind that what followed of the 
Messiah’s sacerdotal character scarcely made 
any impression at all. The circumstances 
of adversity into which the people of the 
Jews fell from time to time, would lead them, 
very naturally, to look for a king and mighty 
captain to subdue their enemies, rather than 
to expect a priest to make atonement for 
their sins. They, as a nation, had no very 
distinct idea of any other office in their 
promised Messiah but that of a king. This 
was the case, not only with the nation at 
large, but the select few who were found 
waiting for the consolation of Israel at the 
time when Jesus came; they had no idea of 
a suffering Messiah: And even when it 
had been proved to the apostles that Christ 
must needs suffer, and rise again from the 
dead, the kingdom was first and warmest 
upon their minds; for when they came to¬ 
gether after the resurrection, they said to 
their master, in anxious tone, “ Lord, wilt 
thou at this time restore again the kingdom 
unto Israel ?” 

This very brief reference to Christ’s priestly 
office, will lead us to conclude on the in- 


OF OUR LORD. 


45 


quiry, How and in what sense the promise of 
the kingdom was expected to be fulfilled? 
The promise was taken literally; nor does 
the ignorance of the Jews in general, in re¬ 
gard to the priesthood of their Messiah, in 
the least invalidate their faith in the promise 
of their king. Jesus reproved his disciples, 
and that with some severity, for not appre¬ 
hending the necessity of his death : “ O fools 
and slow of heart to believe all that the 
prophets have spoken : ought not Christ to 
have suffered these things, and to enter into 
his glory ? And beginning at Moses and all 
the prophets he expounded unto them, in all 
the Scriptures, the things concerning him¬ 
self.” But in this reproof for unbelief in 
regard to his sufferings, there is no reproof 
for faith in the promise pertaining to his 
11 glory”—and “ majesty:” nor when they 
pressed the question on the time of his re- 
storing again the kingdom , did he reprove 
them on their hope in that kingdom; his 
reproof was on their anxiety to know the 
time, not on their faith in the kingdom itself: 
“ It is not for you to know the times and the 
seasons which the Father hath put iri his 
own power.” 

We are left then to conclude that the sons 
of Israel generally, and the disciples of Jesus 
in particular, expected, in the fulfilment of the 
promise, that the Messiah should literally and 
personally ascend the throne of David, and 
reign King of kings, and Lord of lords. The 


46 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


disciples of Jesus especially looked for his 
glory at the second coming; for nothing of this 
glory had been revealed during the time of his 
coming in the flesh, and before his suffering 
and death. No, nothing during the thirty- 
three years of Christ’s sojourn on this earth 
could in any wise be said to have occurred 
by which these glorious promises and bold 
predictions were realized. There were many 
things said, during the life and ministry of 
Jesus, even from his very birth to the hour of 
his death, which referred to his kingly power 
and majestic glory; but it could never at 
any one time be said that he was actually 
in the exercise of royalty, or that he favored 
the display of majestic pomp. Enough is 
said, however, and some things are in course 
of action, by which it is made to appear that 
this same Jesus is born to the highest dis¬ 
tinction. Even when his birth is announced, 
the angel Gabriel declares his royal lineage, 
and royal title. The wise men from the east 
come to worship him who was “ born king 
of the Jews.” Nathaniel, the humble and 
guileless disciple of the Lord, hails his 
Master, as “ the Son of God, and the King 
of Israel.” The idea of a kingly title fol¬ 
lowed him, at times, all through his minis¬ 
try ; and at one time the multitude were so 
set upon his exaltation, that they were de¬ 
termined to come and by force make him a 
king. The children in the temple shouted 
Hosannah to the king of Israel. Pilate ques- 


OF OUR LORD. 


47 


tioned him closely upon his assumption of 
royal dignity: “Art thou a king, then? The 
dying thief acknowledged his power and 
majesty : “ Lord, remember me when thou 
comest into thy kingdom.” Thus his power 
and glory as a king was the hope of Israel. 
But this hope was not realized ; there was 
hardly anything to flatter this expectation 
from beginning to end of his career ; and he 
died at last upon the cross, under an impu¬ 
tation of having assumed, unjustly and sedi¬ 
tiously, the royal title. But this hope was 
carried forward by his disciples, and Israel 
still looked for redemption through faith in 
his promise of return. Indeed, it could hardly 
be otherwise; if they had relinquished this 
hope in him, they must have given way to 
suspicions unfavorable to his Messiahship; 
and in their estimation, his character must 
have sunk into that of a deceiver. But the 
apostles, as well as all his other faithful fol¬ 
lowers, were happily delivered from all such 
fearful delinquency: they knew too well 
upon what their faith had rested, to allow 
themselves, by such seeming disappoint¬ 
ments, to be beaten off from their high ex¬ 
pectations. And then when the day of Pen¬ 
tecost was fully come, they were endued 
with power from on high, by which they 
were enabled to comprehend all the grand 
attributes of the promised kingdom; under 
which unction they went out and preached 
the gospel of the kingdom, teaching men to 


48 APPEARING AND KINGDOM 

look for the coming again of our Lord Jesus 
Christ unto eternal life. 

Here, my reader, we might turn our at¬ 
tention to the state and condition of the chil¬ 
dren of Abraham in the present day, that we 
might see whether they have any hope, and 
what that hope is! And here I am com¬ 
pelled to feel an impression which is far 
from according with my best charities. 
What I am referring to now is the discord¬ 
ant and even jarring accounts'given by trav¬ 
ellers and tourists who have gone over 
eastern territory, especially that of the Holy 
Land. Some of these, one class of them, 
speak of many favorable appearances among 
the Jews sojourning in those parts; and they 
also assert that there is an increasing influx 
of Jews from time to time, so as to render a 
Jewish population very visible and imposing. 
These accounts are readily acknowledged 
by those Christians who are expecting the 
literal return of this nation to their ancient 
inheritance. On the other hand, these fa¬ 
vorable reports are absolutely contradicted, 
and the contradiction goes to declare that 
the number of Jewish sojourners in that 
land, is diminishing very fast! This coun¬ 
ter-statement, too, is fondly received by all 
those whose faith is repugnant to the return 
and gathering of Israel into their own bor¬ 
ders. 

Now here is a perplexed case, and we 
may be left to struggle between conflicting 


OF OUR LORD. 


49 


and opposing elements. Our way, however, 
is not by this course; we come to our con¬ 
clusion through a different channel. Little 
confidence can be placed on the reports of 
secular men, travellers and mariners, mer¬ 
chants and speculators. Abatingsome excep¬ 
tions, we have had a miserable detail of folly 
and falsehood, of truth and ignorance, of 
prejudice and extravagance, in the reports of 
such witnesses, that we hold ourselves bound 
to take very little upon their credit—nothing 
more than what is vouched by better author¬ 
ity. The Christian public have agencies es¬ 
tablished for these purposes; and from these 
accredited sources we learn, among other 
things not before us now, that within the 
last thirty years, missions direct to the Jews 
have been in operation. By these means, 
so many from time to time have been con¬ 
verted to the faith of Jesus, the crucified 
one, that Christian societies have been 
formed of their numbers; pastors and 
teachers have been appointed them; devout 
conferences have been held by the Jews in 
many parts of the world ; serious inquiries 
have been made on the subject of their pres¬ 
ent condition and future hopes. These 
means and measures have brought the Jews 
so much into harmony with Christians, that 
we have been enabled to come at their views 
and sentiments on the great subject of their 
hopes in the promised Messiah. 

Here then opens to us the present hope of 
5 


50 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


the Jews. They expect the promise of the 
Anointed One to be fulfilled in the coming 
of the Son of David; a king to sit upon the 
throne of his father David. In confirmation 
of this, these Jews appeal to the prophets 
generally, and in particular to Jesus and his 
apostles, all of whom they affirm to be of the 
same mind, if their sayings and writings are 
to be depended upon. This hope of the Jews 
may be traced along the line of their history, 
from the captivity down to the close of Scrip¬ 
ture canon: this same faith and hope char¬ 
acterize the expectations of all those who 
were waiting for the consolation of Israel at 
the incarnation of God’s dear Son. This 
and these follow on in the ministry of Christ 
and in the belief of the apostles, as their 
writings abundantly testify. 

if such be the hope of the Jew as a Jew 
—such is the hope of the Jew as a Christian. 
I have heard of some converted Jews who 
have abandoned all hope in the call and 
gathering of their nation : but such instances 
are rare. The Jew, by becoming a Chris¬ 
tian, loses nothing of his privilege as a Jew; 
his hope and expectation in the Messiah are 
enlarged and enriched; all spiritual bles¬ 
sings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus 
become his by faith in the new covenant; 
the graces of the Spirit are sealed to him, re¬ 
pentance, and hearty contrition for the sin 
of unbelief, especially for having rejected 
and for having crucified the Lord of life and 


OF OUR LORD. 


51 


glory, a new heart and a new spirit, re¬ 
adoption into the family of God, and a title 
to all the blessed immunities of the house¬ 
hold of faith. If to preach this gospel to the 
Jews is calculated to harden their hearts, then 
the preaching of this gospel to the Gentiles 
is calculated to produce the same effect upon 
them; for nothing but the gospel of the 
grace of God—free grace—grace without the 
works of the law, can turn any to righte¬ 
ousness, whether he be Jew or Gentile. 
And let all the Gentiles know assuredly that 
God was in Christ reconciling the world 
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses 
unto them : and this word of reconciliation 
is committed to the ministers of God, that 
they may show unto sinners throughout all 
the world, this only method of salvation— 
salvation from sin, death, and hell. This is 
the only hope of Israel. “ Looking for that 
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of 
the Great God, our Saviour Jesus Christ,” 
I remain, &c. 


-of rHvtqz rs e ncnii i .•:?*] *:• V'iQjg 

-•v.uor m!) ‘lo 5 •• d *. <IjT;; oj 

5!i ol foqaog riMtowj <•- * d d .• ’ d 

LETTER IV. 

THE SECOND ADVENT THE HOPE OF THE CHRISTIAN, 
THE FULFILMENT OF GOSPEL PROMISE, AND THE 
CONSUMMATION OF THE WHOLE EVANGELICAL 
ECONOMY. 

This hope was the subject of the Christian ministry — 
The faith of the Christian—The future state , the 
subject of both Testaments—The hope of the Chris¬ 
tian consummated in the kingdom of Christ—The 
times indicate the approach of the great event. 

“ By faith Moses, when he was come to 
years, refused to be called the son of Phara¬ 
oh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer 
affliction with the people of God, than to 
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 
esteeming the reproach of Christ greater 
riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he 
had respect unto the recompense of reward.” 
How is it, then, that some modern divines 
have attempted to establish a system of 
“disinterested benevolence,”—a love to God, 
and a submission to his will, without any 
regard to our own happiness? Upon the 
same principle goes a new-fangled conceit, 
namely, “that a man must be willing to be 


APPEARING OF OUR LORD. 


53 


damned, if the glory of God requires it.” 
The subject I have now to propose to my 
reader, in this letter, is in distinct opposition 
to all such theological quibbling: we shall 
be led to consider the hope we have in 
Christ for a blessed immortality, a motive to 
faith in him. The apostle Paul, in the 
midst of all the calamities and distresses to 
which he was exposed in “ this life,” was 
buoyed up with the hope he had “in Christ” 
of a glorious reward—a reward of grace 
when he should appear. In the 15th chap, 
of the first epistle to the Corinthians, St. 
Paul takes up the resurrection of Christ, 
which he wishes to confirm as an indisputa¬ 
ble matter of fact; for, upon this fact he 
raises all his hope and confidence of the res¬ 
urrection of Christ’s followers. He, with all 
his fellow-laborers, expects to be rewarded 
at the resurrection of the just—the resurrec¬ 
tion of whom is to be effected when Christ 
shall appear the second time; then they 
that “sleep in Jesus will God bring with 
him.” The subject now opens, The Second 
Advent—The Hope of the Christian. And 
why such repose upon the second coming 
of our Lord? Why? Because it will be 
the fulfilment of gospel promise, and the 
consummation of the whole evangelical econ¬ 
omy ! 

The second advent the hope of the Chris¬ 
tian. What is it? Let us see; and that we 
may see, let us carefully and devoutly exam- 
5 * 


54 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


ine. This hope of the Christian is not to be 
defined in contradistinction to the hope of 
Israel, but rather in agreement therewith. 
Nevertheless, there is something in the hope 
of the Christian that may be considered apart 
from the hope of the Jew. The first prom¬ 
ise was to man, to the man who first sinned, 
to him and to his posterity, even to as many 
as should believe. This covenant of the 
woman’s seed was confirmed, in the line of 
Seth, from Adam to Noah, and from Noah 
to Abraham. When this covenant was 
confirmed to Abraham, and to his descend¬ 
ants, there was in the promise more than 
a little which pertained to an earthly inher¬ 
itance, a particular and defined country, the 
land of Canaan. This promise runs along, 
and from time to time is afresh confirmed 
with additional pledges, royal domains and 
a line of kings. To David especially, this 
promise is made, and that in reference to a 
King of his lineage, who is to be the Sover¬ 
eign of the world, as well as king of Israel. 
Thus the coming and power of this “ Great 
King,” are foreseen and celebrated all through 
the books of the prophets. Hence we are 
led to see that the hope of Israel was dis¬ 
tinctly fixed upon a king of the house of 
David, whose throne was to be established 
in Jerusalem. It was, however, in the expec¬ 
tation of every true Israelite, to be a king 
reigning in righteousness, establishing truth 
and justice in the earth. 


OF OUR LORD. 


55 


This hope of Israel was never relinquished 
nor denied by the apostles of Jesus; when 
they went out and preached Christ crucified, 
and offered him to the world as a Saviour 
to save mankind from their sins, they never 
blinked the question of the kingdom, nor the 
title of their Master to royal dignity, as heir 
to the throne of David. It is true, that the 
Jews had generally agreed to reject the 
claims of Jesus, and to hold him in the light 
of an impostor: but the preachers of Chris¬ 
tianity, and all the ministers of the Christian 
faith, boldly declare that this same Jesus 
was both Lord and Christ, and that he would 
yet appear and come again with power and 
great glory, to judge the world, and to set 
up his kingdom. To be more particular 
still, I must observe, 

That the second coming of the Lord was 
the hope of the first Christian ministers. 
Their being Jews by birth, and their having 
this hope as such, does not at all affect this 
hope which they held as Christians. The 
apostles, after the death of their Master, had 
come into possession of a correct knowledge 
upon the subject of his mission. They had 
been fully instructed by divine communica¬ 
tions, to expect their reward not till their 
Lord ^should come again; which coming 
again had been declared in plain promises, 
and which they were persuaded would be 
even as it had been told them. Upon this 
question, namely, that of his coming again, 


56 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


they could have no doubt! If, indeed, he 
had been holden of the power of death, and 
the grave had held him captive, then all 
might have been given up for lost; but they 
were witnesses to his resurrection; they saw 
him alive after his passion; they had many 
personal interviews with him; they received 
from him a plenary commission to preach 
the gospel to all nations for the obedience of 
faith. And now what did that gospel in¬ 
clude? This must be set down in a few 
words. The very first sermon developing 
the office and character of Jesus, and deliv¬ 
ered too on the day of Pentecost, exhibits a 
striking specimen of apostolic views. Peter 
is the speaker. After vindicating his Mas¬ 
ter’s honors, and rebutting Jewish scandal, 
he sets forth the royal titles of the crucified 
Nazarene in these words: “Men and breth¬ 
ren, let me freely speak unto you of the pa¬ 
triarch David, that he is both dead and 
buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this 
day. Therefore being a prophet, and know¬ 
ing that God had sworn with an oath to him, 
that of the fruit of his loins, according to the 
flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit upon 
his throne. Therefore let all the house of 
Israel know assuredly that God hath made 
that same Jesus both Lord and Christ.” 

The primitive ministers of the Lord Jesus 
were the eleven apostles, not to mention the 
seventy. These were called, during their 
Master’s time of administration, and it is 


OF OUR LORD. 


57 


very clear that they expected his elevation 
to the kingly dignity. Great was their disap¬ 
pointment upon his death, an event which 
seemed to be a death-blow to all their hopes. 
From this consternation, however, they were 
fully recovered, and with better informed 
minds they entered upon their work. But, 
as it respected the apostle Paul, he was called 
to his high office, and engaged to the labors 
of the ministry, with all the shame and igno¬ 
miny of the cross before him. Jesus showed 
him particularly how^great things he must 
suffer for his name. At this he Avas not 
stumbled nor abashed; he gloried in the 
cross, knowing well that there was a crown 
of glory laid up for him, and that it would 
be given him at his Master’s appearing. 
The epistles are rich in these triumphant 
expectations—all which expectations and 
hopes are carried on to the promised coming 
again. Upon what other event could they 
fix their hope? All that was past, notwith¬ 
standing the flattering prospects of the dis¬ 
ciples, had vanished like a dream; nothing 
was left to these his followers, but this prom¬ 
ise of return ; and it was this promise that 
St. Paul took up wherewith to gird him as he 
addressed himself to his work: this promise 
was his whole armor, his breastplate and 
shield, his helmet and sword. Thus armed 
and furnished, he went forth with the love 
of Christ warm upon his heart, and the word 
of Christ upon his lips: “I know whom I 


58 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


have believed, and am persuaded that he is 
able to keep that which I have committed 
unto him against that day ! ” As this cham¬ 
pion entered upon this service and perse¬ 
vered, so he finished: “I have fought a 
good fight, I have finished my course, I 
have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid 
up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous Judge shall give me 
at that day ; and not to me only, but unto all 
them that love his appearing ! ” So much for 
Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles; now for 
Peter, the apostle of the circumcision, with 
his companions in labor. u The elders 
which are among you I exhort, who am 
also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings 
of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory 
that shall be revealed. Feed the flock which 
is among you, taking the oversight there¬ 
of, not by constraint, but willingly, not for 
filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither 
as being lords over God’s heritage, but being 
examples to the flock. And when the chief 
shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a 
crown of glory that fadeth not away.” 

Without an act of uniformity being passed 
by the legislature, the apostles have most 
evidently subscribed one creed ; the apostles 
Paul and Peter are one in their faith on the 
second coming. Now let us see how this 
same faith settles upon the minds of James 
and John. “ Be patient, brethren, (says 
James,) unto the coming of the Lord. Be- 


OF OUR LORD. 


59 


hold, the husbandman waiteth for the pre¬ 
cious fruit of the earth, and hath long pa¬ 
tience for it, until he receive the early and 
latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your 
hearts; for the coming of the Lord draw- 
eth nigh.” This coming of the Lord (per¬ 
sonally, I should conclude) is the hope of 
James as a minister of'Christ, and of those 
Christians to whom he ministered. St. John 
calls his followers to this same hope. “ And 
now little children abide in him; that when 
he shall appear we may have confidence, 
and not be ashamed before him at ms com¬ 
ing.” 

Again. The second advent was the hope 
of the faithful of every grade. The Chris¬ 
tians, as such, looked to the second coming 
of their Lord for redemption. We have 
not the sentiments of Christians generally 
expressed by themselves in regard to this 
subject, as we have the minds of the apostles 
expressed by themselves in their writings ; 
therefore the hope of Christians generally is 
to be understood in the sense as represented 
by Christian and apostolic writers, who 
record the faith of their followers in their 
communications to the churches. • And here 
we have the fullest evidence that this doc¬ 
trine in the ministration of the gospel, was 
delivered to them, and that they received it, 
and that it did become the foundation of their 
hope. This is very forcibly illustrated by 
the apostle Paul in his epistles to the Thessa- 


60 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


lonians. The church gathered in Thessa- 
lonica had much to endure, both from Jews 
and pagans. It was in this place that the 
Jews stirred up what I may call the mob, 
by which to oppose the gospel. “ The 
Jews which believed not, moved with envy, 
took unto them certain lewd fellows of the 
baser sort, and gathered a company, and set 
all the city in an uproar:”—and they raised 
a cr.y against the apostles, saying: “ These 
men that have turned the world upside 
down, are come hither also.” In addressing 
this church by letter, the apostle refers 
to the manner of his entering in among 
them, and how the word was resisted with 
much contention; but amidst all this, it 
was a matter of joy and wonder to the 
apostle to see “how ye turned from idols to 
serve the living and true God, and to wait 
for his Son from heaven. For what is our 
hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are 
not even ye in the presence of our Lord 
Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our 
glory and joy.” The faith and practice of 
the Philippians are beautifully illustrated by 
this hope : “ For our conversation is in hea¬ 
ven ; from whence also we look for the 
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall 
change .ottr vile body, that it may be fash¬ 
ioned like unto his glorious body, according 
to the working whereby he is able even to 
subdue all things unto himself.” 

This then, we see, brother, is the hope of 


OF OUR LORD. 


61 


all Christ’s followers—it is emphatically the 
Christian hope—the hope of the believer. 
It is true that Christians of the present day 
are not all of one mind, nor of one persua¬ 
sion on the subject; they severally come to 
different conclusions as it regards their final 
state—the state of happiness and reward to 
which are appointed all the faithful follow¬ 
ers of Jesus the Son God. Whatever may 
have been the distinct faith of the apostles, 
there is a prevailing idea among us, that the 
valley and shadow of death is the dividing 
line between the earth—this present visible 
and material world, and the spiritual, imma¬ 
terial, and heavenly world. This view of 
the question supposes that all good people, 
at the hour of death, pass from this state 
immediately into the eternal state where God 
hath erected his throne, and where he holds 
his celestial court, attended by angels and 
saints :—the angels of various orders are un- 
embodied and immaterial spirits—the saints 
of human origin are (/^-embodied spirits, dif¬ 
fering from the angeliccbaracter, inasmuch as 
that a material body is an essential part of 
their whole character; and so at the resurrec¬ 
tion, this body shall be raised from death and 
corruption to newness of life, and be re-united 
to the spirit, and so the one man, entire, body 
and soul, be beatified eternally together in that 
distant world we call heaven, where God and 
all holy intelligences reside. This consum¬ 
mation of the human character, you see, is to 
6 


62 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


eventuate at the resurrection of the last day: 
but the whole of this system seems to me to 
have nothing to do with the millennium, and 
the personal reign of Christ; if we except the 
resurrection of the body, which is generally 
ascribed to the exercise of the power of the 
Son of God in person, all may as well be 
brought about without a millennium of any 
sort, without any reign of Christ whatever. 
If all the saints who die, whether a natural 
death or as martyrs, go directly to heaven; 
and if all the saints who may be alive when 
Christ comes to final judgment be changed 
from mortal to immortal, and be taken by 
Christ with him into heaven, with all that are 
raised from their graves at the^ same time, 
then I do not see how there can be any millen¬ 
nial kingdom, any reign of Christ as God- 
man, any king upon the holy hill of Zion ! I 
am aware that it will be said that the subject^ 
o£ the millennial kingdom will consist of 
those believers who shall live in succeeding 
generations on the earth during the thousand 
years of Christ’s spiritual reign. But then 
I cannot get over this objection, namely, 
that these millennial saints will form but a 
very small part of the redeemed; and so I 
am led to ask why this small part of the 
whole elect should be so distinguished, 
while all the rest arc left out of this grand 
millennial scheme? To me this seems to be 
an insuperable objection to the spiritual and 
impersonal reign of Christ on the earth: 


OF OUR LORD. 


63 


only to think, that while the great affairs of 
his kingdom are advancing and coming to 
their final issue, the Great King himself is 
absent—He is, his people know not where ! 
Not anywhere in his own proper dominions. 
He is said to be at his Father’s right hand 
in the distant worlds of glory ; but as to any 
knowledge of him, or personal intercourse 
with him, they have not any. Now to me 
this system seems to be* so confused, and so 
lacking in the essentials of a kingdom, that 1 
hesitate in admitting it into the economy of 

the GLORIOUS GOSPEL OF THE ELESSED GoD. 

To demolish is oftentimes easy work, and 
desperate work too, when nothing better is 
substituted: let me therefore attempt, at 
least, to set forth some features of a system 
more in agreement with the economy of 
Christ’s kingdom, than that which we have 
declined to embrace. The views we are 
endeavoring to establish concerning the 
kingdom of Christ, will go to demonstrate 
the fulfilment of gospel promise , and the 
consummation of the whole evangelical econ¬ 
omy. 

Deists, Materialists and Universalists agree 
in the admission that the Old Testament 
gives very little evidence, if any, of a fu¬ 
ture state: and some Christians, so called, 
fall in with the infidel conclusion. Let us 
look at this alleged case. And here, first, we 
must ask what definite idea is to be attached 
to the terms, future state? The term, as 


64 APPEARING AND KINGDOM 

thus compounded, is not found in holy writ; 
but without being fastidious or critical in 
this case, let us understand by the term, 
simply this, namely, that state and condition 
of mankind which will succeed this present 
life. Heaven is the future state to the righ¬ 
teous ; perdition, or hell, that to the wicked. 
By the term heaven , in this case, we have 
generally understood what I have noticed 
above; the open vision of divine glory ; a 
state of pure, immaterial, intellectual exist¬ 
ence: a state and condition, however, of 
which we can have no conception, especially 
as such a state applies to man—it is alto¬ 
gether beyond our reach. We, hemmed up 
as we are within the bounds of four or five 
senses, cannot soar to regions so remote, so 
unsearchable, so infinite! This, then, is that 
state or condition of which skeptics say the 
Scriptures give no information ; and some 
half-Christians have been taken in the snare: 
—yes, and not a few real Christians have 
been exceedingly puzzled to make out such 
a state of future existence as this, whether 
they have searched for it either in the Old 
Testament or in the New. And I am now 
inclined to admit the difficulty in the case: 
the Old Testament surely opens no such 
state of future glory for man, and the New, 
strictly speaking, is barren on the same 
topic. Do not be alarmed, my brother—do 
not sympathize with me as if I were in a 
desperate case: we are not going to give up 


OF OUR LORD. 


65 


our heaven and a glorious future state, be¬ 
cause of the rank infidelity of Deists, Mate¬ 
rialists, and Universalists, or because of the 
short-sightedness of some weak brethren in 
the household of faith. O, no; we are not 
to be driven away from our anchor by such 
a light, windy puff as this. No, no, dear 
reader; we have good and safe anchorage 
still, notwithstanding all attempts to strand 
us on the shallows of skepticism, or to drive 
us out to sea in a hurricane! 

Let us see ! The heaven for Christians, 
indeed for all good men, for all that love our 
Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, is prepared in 
the kingdom of our Lord, that kingdom 
which shall be revealed at his coming in 
glory and majesty; that same millennial 
state which we have described again and 
again, as set forth in God’s holy word. And 
it will be an object of importance to search 
out and bring to view what the Old Testa¬ 
ment declares concerning this future state. 

Canaan of old, and Canaan as it was 
in its natural state, was a type of this prom¬ 
ised land—this Canaan made anew; and so 
the enlightened patriarchs considered it; the 
inspired apostle tells us so: after having 
called up the worthies, and the worthy deeds 
of ancient date, as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abra¬ 
ham, he says, “These all died in faith, not 
having received the promises, but having 
seen them afar off, and were persuaded of 
them, and embraced them, and confessed 
6 * 


66 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


that, they were strangers and pilgrims on the 
earth. For they that say such things, de¬ 
clare plainly that they seek a country: and 
truly, if they had been mindful of that coun¬ 
try from whence they came out, they might 
have had opportunity to have returned. 
But now they desire a better country, that 
is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not 
ashamed to be called their God, for he hath 
prepared for them a city.” Our Lord him¬ 
self adds his testimony as it respects the 
faith of Abraham: “ Abraham rejoiced to 
see my day; he saw it and was glad.” The 
Psalms abound in songs of praise—their verse 
is enriched to luxury in praise of Christ’s 
kingdom. The prophets luxuriate and exceed 
even to rapture in foretelling the glories of 
Messiah’s majesty. I will give a specimen. 
“Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad 
with her, all ye that love her; rejoice for 
joy with her all ye that mourn for her, that 
ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts 
of her consolations, that ye may milk out 
and be delighted with the abundance of her 
glory. For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I 
will extend peace unto her like a river, and 
the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing 
stream:—as one whom his mother com- 
forteth, so will I comfort you, and ye shall 
be comforted in Jerusalem.” And so on, in 
a similar strain. This passage of the pro¬ 
phet Isaiah describes the latter day state of 
God’s people; but lest any should think that 


OF OUR LORD. 


67 


the second advent of the Lord is not suffi¬ 
ciently clear, let us see whether such a state 
of luxurious enjoyment is not connected 
with the coming of the Lord. In Isaiah 
xxv. this same prophet sets out and spreads 
a most sumptuous table :—“ A feast of fat 
things; a feast of wines on the lees well 
refined, of'fat things full of marrow:”—and 
upon the preparation of this feast it is added : 
“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this 
is our God, we have waited for him, and he 
shall save us; this is the Lord, we have 
waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice 
in his salvation.” Now, courteous reader, I 
cannot avoid the conclusion that this and 
these passages refer immediately to the hap¬ 
piness and glory of the future state, that 
heaven of peace and rest provided for the 
saints. Indeed, the conclusion is inevitable, 
for the festivity in which the Lord’s people 
are to regale is connected with the over¬ 
throw of death, sin, and sorrow. “And he 
will destroy in this mountain the face of the 
covering cast over all people, and the veil 
that is spread over all nations. He will 
swallow up death in victory; and the Lord 
God will wipe away tears from off all faces; 
and the rebuke of his people shall he take 
away from off all the earth : for the Lord 
hath spoken it.” The apostle Paul, when 
he describes the manner of the resurrection 
of the saints, and the commencement of 
celestial glory, refers to this “ saying” of the 


68 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


prophet: “ So when this corruptible shall 
have put on incorruption, and this mortal 
shall have put on immortality, then shall be 
brought to pass the saying that is written, 
Death is swallowed up in victory !” 

Enough, we think, has been set out before 
an unbelieving brother, to clear up what has 
been expressed in doubting mood in regard to 
the Old Testament doctrine of a future state. 
The second advent of Jesus the Messiah, his 
reign and majesty, constitute the heavenly 
kingdom of peace and felicity, provided for 
the godly of all generations; and this heaven¬ 
ly kingdom so illustrated is that very state 
of glory foretold by the Old and New Testa¬ 
ment writers; with one voice and one word 
they both show the way of life—life eternal 
and immortal, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord! 

Well, then, we are brought to the conclu¬ 
sion that the second advent of Christ will 
fulfil the promises of the gospel, and con¬ 
summate the whole evangelical economy. 
This is a grand winding up of so stupendous 
a plan;—a finish worthy of its beginning—a 
beginning, however, that did not at first 
promise so much; at most, few had sufficient 
penetration by which to see into this deep 
mystery. Angels desired to look into these 
things; of which salvation the prophets (too) 
have enquired and searched diligently, who 
prophesied of the (coming) grace; searching 
what, and what manner of time the spirit of 


OF OUR LORD. 


69 


Christ which was in them did signify, when 
it testified beforehand, the sufferings of 

Christ, AND THE GLORY THAT SHOULD FOLLOW.” 

The whole of this—and much more might be 
recited to the same amount—goes in a direct 
line of testimony to declare that the whole 
economy of grace to man is in the order and 
after the manner we have attempted to 
evince and illustrate in the course we have 
pursued thus far. 

And now, after what has been said on this 
great question, shall I add one word by way 
of apology? Shall I beg and entreat an un¬ 
believing brother to look at the subject thus 
recommended to him? Or shall I frame an 
excuse for him, provided the subject should 
fail to excite his attention :—or, what is more 
likely, acknowledge the feebleness of my 
advocacy ? 1 shall do neither of these. The 

grand topic admits of no apology. The sun 
asks not leave to shine. The Sun of Righte¬ 
ousness is rising upon a murky world—upon 
a world that has long been enveloped in the a 
gloom of night. “ The valley of the shadow * 
of death” hath thrown around these regions 
the horrors of perdition; but we are ex¬ 
pecting a more happy season, and the signs 
of the times indicate the approach of that 
brighter day: aye, the gloom and terrors of 
this present time \tfe do conceive to be in 
advance of that glorious era! Our Lord 
asketh with emphasis, u How is it that ye 
do not discern this time?” And you are 


70 


APPEARING AND KINGDOM 


ready to ask what there is in this time —the 
day in which we live—this present hour 
while I am writing, that demands such close 
inquiry, or that awakens such alarm? Yes, 
my brother, 1 wish you to put the question 
close, and distinct; and I hope to be pre¬ 
pared with as distinct an answer! 

I will now call up some of those impres¬ 
sions which the events of these times must 
have made upon our minds. It has been my 
lot^to grow up, and to advance in years, 
during a succession of times and seasons the 
most momentous and striking the world ever 
saw! But do you ask again, why all this 
moment and consequence ascribed to this 
present age? Why give an importance to 
these days—an importance not admitted nor 
discovered in those gone by? The reason 
is manifest: the days past were preparatory, 
they were the days of means , but now com- 
eth the end , the final crisis! My brother, 
have you not been sufficiently observant to 
apprehend upon the minds of all sober, 
'thinking men, yea, upon your own mind, an 
impression in advance of some vast winding 
up—some close and finish to a long series of 
impending and doubtful and fearful events? 
The righteous and wicked have been, for 
some time past, even until now, I had 
almost said, in doubtful conflict. Dreadful 
has been the strife—endurance and appli¬ 
ance have distinguished both parties—the 
powers of the church, and the gates of hell 


OF OUR LORD. 


71 


/ 

seem to have been balanced, and victory 
hanging in suspense. It is very difficult to 
say whether sin or error has been most ob¬ 
stinate and domineering. Certainly, error 
has not been wanting in stout-heartedness— 
in rashness—in boldness of adventure—in 
determination. Not to say anything of the 
gross and vulgar infidelity of the more 
brutish of mankind, as the French revo¬ 
lutionary philosophers; nor to speak of a 
more refined deism, such as was invented 
or advocated by Matt. Tindal: but let us 
speak of the bold attempts of men to de¬ 
throne and undeify “ The Son of the Fa¬ 
ther.” What a tremendous battle has been 
pushed even to the foot of the divine throne ! 
Arius , in the fourth century brought vast 
forces to hear upon “the city of the great 
king;” but as mighty a power defeated and 
overthrew him and his whole array. Dur¬ 
ing the last half century, a period that comes 
within the bounds of this time , what a con¬ 
catenation of effort! The German bands— 
the ranks of Geneva—the subalterns of New 
England, and a small remnant of the “alien 
army” in Old England: these have confed¬ 
erated against the' crown and kingdom of 
our Emmanuel; these have exerted a mighty 
prowess, and for a while, even to this hour, 
there seems to be fearful odds. There is 
the man of sin, wounded, as it was thought, 
“deadly,” in his own castle on the “Seven 
Hills,” is afresh bestirring himself, and stalk- 


72 


APPEARING OF OU 


■ 0 020 918 

ing abroad in all the earth, .v^iaug nes in 
hypocrisy, after the old sort, after the work¬ 
ing of Satan, with all power and signs and 
lying wonders: and his success seems to be 
commensurate with his exertions; men are 
given over to strong delusions to believe a 
lie, because they love not the truth that they 
might be saved. Here, too, is the same bal¬ 
ance of human power. In these circum¬ 
stances of desperation, the coming of the 
Lord is most devoutly to be wished. “The 
appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, which in 
his times he shall show, who is the Blessed 
and only Potentate, the King of kings and 
Lord of lords.” These titles and this sov¬ 
ereignty are assumed by the Son of God, and 
the sceptre well becomes his hand. Well, 
my brother, this strong case, doubtful as it 
may seem to be, will soon be decided. “Be¬ 
hold. the Judge standeth before the door.” 
Prayer is the privilege, and watchfulness the 
duty of every believer. “The vision is yet 
for an appointed time, but at the end it shall 
speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait 
for it, because it will surely come. It will 
not tarry.” 


